Dark Side Darker

by Lucas T. Harmond

  Rufus was silent but the troubled look in his eyes spoke volumes.

  “I shouldn’t have said anything.” Josh looked around again, leaned forward and dropped his voice to a whisper. “Still, about the gun...”

  His friend smiled and shook his head slowly. “No Josh. Christ, man, I deal in pills, uppers, downers, acid and the herb man, nothing fucking heavy. I don’t deal in pieces man and even if I did you’d never gonna’ get that shit from me.” He paused looked up, more serious now. “Fucking never!”

  Josh looked over his shoulder, fidgeting nervously, up to the car park floors. Nothing.

  “Listen, Rufus man, believe me man, I’m the last person to hurt anyone. I just don’t feel safe and,” he paused again. He was well aware the next part sounded both compulsive and deranged. Slowly he shook his head and laughed out loud at how ludicrous the words sounded, even to him.

  “I don’t think Sarah’s safe! Sarah and shit-loads more man. Fucking shit-loads of people, I mean, Christ, did you see about that girl that went missing?”

  Rufus looked unsettled. He spoke slowly and softly. Uncertain if his friend realised how truly erratic he sounded. “Yeah that girl, er, kelly. kelly, something.”

  “No!” Josh said angrily. “Sarah! Sarah, something.”

  “What about her?”

  Josh smiled madly and punched the table. “Jesus no! Not our Sarah, this other girl, Sarah... oh I don’t know her fucking name! Okay, how about that car they found just next to the Uni’. Blood fucking everywhere. I mean...” His mind drifted off and locked onto something that had just been said. “Who’s kelly?” he asked, confused.

  “Some girl who’s gone missing. It was on the news this morning. Listen Josh I don’t see where you’re going with this? you the one who’s gonna’ save them or something? Just charge in, Gat’ in one hand, dick in the other? I don’t see it man, do you? The fucking Goth Avenger. Man, don’t you spend half your life just telling me, fuck it all?”

  Josh waved his finger at Rufus as a warning. He was surprised by his own anger. “Just shut up, man. Shut... the... fuck... up!” He spaced out the words, spat out from in between gritted teeth. Anger was seething through him.

  He paused then continued the mad outburst. “Man, look at all this shit that’s going on! People going missing, cars just abandoned, covered in blood!”

  “Man, what the fuck you on about? What fucking car??!”

  “Man, they found some car by the university, all smashed up and just no one about.”

  “Josh man, I don’t understand. What’s this got to do with missing people?”

  “I don’t know man, I just know it’s connected somehow. Just know!”

  Rufus shook his head looking troubled. “Josh man...”

  “Rufus, this is just the tip man. I’ve been hearing stories man, about people seeing things.”

  “ ‘Things??’ What things?”

  Josh was indignant. “Things man, things!! Creatures man, I don’t know, fucking monsters or some shit!”

  “Monsters? Josh man, are you listening to your self? Who’d you hear this from?”

  “People man, people.”

  Rufus shook his head now. “Look man, I can’t hear this! What people?”

  Josh laughed, he was quickly becoming hysterical. “Okay man, I’ll admit it but look at this!”

  He began searching through his pockets. “Man, I know it’s here somewhere.”

  Rufus looked about embarrassed.

  “Here!” Josh slapped down a crumpled piece of paper onto the table.

  Rufus looked at him uncertainly and then unfolded what appeared to be an article ripped out of a newspaper. He read it out loud:

  “Police were called out on a reporting of an intruder in the garden of senior citizen Helen Grieves. On arrival they found the elderly woman to be petrified and convinced that ‘something,’ ” he paused, looked up at his friend, shook his head again and then continued to read, “ ‘non-human’ had attempted to break into her house. Police found the back window of her home smashed and some evidence of a disturbance in her garden. When asked to describe the intruder Mrs Grieves was unable to describe with any clarity what she had seen other than to say, it had tentacles and spines..., spines?” Rufus broke off. “Josh what is this shit? Some old crazy bitch seeing things and you think it’s the end of the world?”

  He sat back. “Josh you are scaring me. All of us. I really think you should maybe see a head doctor, man. Did something happen?”

  Josh smiled. “A painting happened. One fucking painting too far and I became captain crazy fuck head. Listen Rufus I’m scared out of my fucking mind.”

  “Look we’ve noticed man..., Karen!”

  Josh followed his gaze.

  Karen bounded up wearing baggy green jeans that were frayed to pieces at the bottom, a purple tie-dye t-shirt and with both straps of her ripped up backpack over her shoulders. She waved and smiled cheerfully, unaware of the discussion her friends were having.

  “What ya’ doin’?” She asked jokingly.

  “Discussing firearms and severe mental disorders and whether it’s a good idea to combine the two.” Josh said with a dark gleam in his eyes.

  “Josh,” Rufus started looking up at Karen. “Thinks that it is.”

  Karen shrugged, sat down, and started eating Josh’s long cold fries. “Nope, that all meant very little to me.”

  “Josh wants me...” Rufus caught Josh’s dagger stare and head shake and stopped.

  “ ‘Josh wants you??’ Well, well Joshy boy. All these years of moping after Sarah, ‘Queen of the ice vixens’ was just a cunning ruse, huh?”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I really want Rufus’ black ass. Can we drop it?”

  A wave of nausea cut through Josh, violent fear and he stood up spinning, at the same time looking up. He’d known that He was up there somewhere, felt it in every particle of his being. There He was, a few stories up, dressed entirely in white, leaning casually over the balcony.

  “Look!” He shouted. “You both see that guy, right?” “What guy?” Karen asked looking upwards. “The guy in white, up there, the guy who’s... the guy who’s fucking waving at me now!”

  Karen waved back. “Yeah. So what? Who is it?”

  “Right, fuck this!” Josh growled and started pacing away.

  “Who is it?” Karen repeated, just beginning to become concerned.

  “You going up there?” Rufus asked, almost as a command not to.

  Josh nodded. “I need to know who that is.”

  Karen caught him by the shoulder. “You don’t know? What’s going on?”

  He ignored her and began moving towards the nearest escalator, Rufus walked along beside him.

  “No,” Josh said spinning on him. He looked back at Karen who stood helplessly, then again to Rufus.

  “You both stay here!”

  Rufus went to grab Josh’s shoulder as he moved away but couldn’t bring himself to. He knew he should go after him but found himself unwilling to do so. Something in the way Josh had spoken had virtually paralysed him. The command had been said with such intensity, so seriously it seemed to have shut him down.

  Behind him, Karen had sat firmly down the instant Josh had spoke and was now sitting, feeling angry with herself, wondering why the hell she had complied so willingly.

  The two watched Josh scrambling the wrong way up a downwards moving escalator, feeling confused and completely unwilling to call out to him.

  CARTHY

  JOSH EXPLODED OFF the moving stairs, knocking back an elderly lady who stumbled against the glass partition. Her bag dropped from her hand and something shattered. “Hey!! Hey! Come back ya’ bastard!” Shouted her male companion, but Josh ignored the old man’s cry.

  A young security guard on the next level down watched the tall, black clad form dart through the crowd and pretended not to have noticed, deciding it was far too much effort to start running up flight after flight of escalators this close to his l
unch break.

  Josh dodged carelessly, blindly colliding with anyone who didn’t move quick enough. He was oblivious to the scowls and startled looks and repeatedly shot glances up to where the white -clad guy had been. He had not reappeared since he had simply shrugged, shook his head and then stepped back out of Josh’s field of vision.

  Josh’s mind was spinning, just hoping he could still catch him and not even considering what might happen if he did.

  Another set of stairs, moving up the right way this time.

  “Move!” was virtually screamed at a pair of giggling girls who were making no effort to let him pass.

  “Fuck you!” snarled the braver of the two as he tore in between them.

  Josh skidded to a halt, slipped, fell onto the tiled floor and then scrambled to his feet. He was on the first level of the car park now. The other man was not.

  He span round on the spot, taking in the empty balcony circle. No one—just colour-coded doors, machines to pay for parking passes and a child’s play-car machine which occasionally sung the theme tune from Noddy. He stood bent over with scythes of acid-pain eating into his side and with his breath coming out in erratic little bursts. The last few bars of xylophone music from the toy car echoed and then died away into nothing.

  The red door. Just knew somehow.

  In seconds he was there, slammed through the heavy door and was standing in the dark concrete expanse of the car park. A light flickered above his head and a black BMW slowly rolled past in front of him. Above was a wet concrete roof and dim lights. Harsh white sky blasted into the darkness at the edges, silhouetting the safety barrier there. Row after row of cars sat dormant in the gloom between the square support pillars.

  Josh was shaking violently, terror slowly crawling in, replacing adrenaline. No one was about, but he could sense something, felt wrong somehow. Felt violated.

  He wanted to shout something, call out to Him. To It.

  He slumped over, hands on his thighs trying to control his shallow breathing, letting his heart’s frantic beating slowly begin to even out. He swallowed in the silence, listened to the distant sounds of the city swept-in with the cold wind, listened to the dirty water drip, drip, dripping in every dank corner of the man-made tomb. He stood just waiting for something to happen, fully aware that he was being watched. Weighed up.

  Then he saw him, knew where he was a second before he even had. The man was leaning casually against one of the posts, hands dug deep into the pockets of his white jacket. A cigarette’s hot glow burning from the gloom that painted out his face.

  “You know you’re a pain in the ass kid?” His voice was weird, seemed to echo. No, he actually seemed to speak with two voices. Both harsh and ancient in a way that was hard to explain and the only difference seemed that one was very distant.

  Josh just stared back, uncertain what to do. Just rooted to the spot. Suddenly questioning if he’d really done the right thing chasing after this... thing.

  Something deep inside was screaming that the Man he was looking at now, was not human! That he was even just accepting that thought as fact troubled him, but at the same time he wasn’t really certain how much he could actually trust his senses anymore. Maybe, he mused with dark amusement, he was just standing alone in a car park.

  “What do you think?” The guy asked suddenly.

  “What!?” Josh stammered breathlessly.

  Wild eyes glared out from the dark. “You know damn well what I’m answering, Josh!”

  Josh blurted out the only thing he could think to say. “How do you know my name?”

  A smile slowly formed on the guy’s face; he moved out from the dark, light dancing on the lenses of his glasses.

  “This is all very cliched, don’t you think? Well, let’s cut to the chase. My name’s Carthy by the way.”

  He walked casually towards him, hands still in his pockets.

  “No don’t run. Well, I’m not one for small talk. First of all, I’m not following you.”

  Somehow there seemed to be more words in his sentences then were actually spoken.

  Josh was beginning to feel sick, was beginning to pace backwards to the door. The man had an unhealthy presence and his head buzzed with sound.

  “What do you want?” Josh spat out the words. Somehow he felt that this man was responsible for everything he had been experiencing.

  “Now? This second? Well just to warn you that whatever impulses you’re getting right now, whatever you might suddenly feel compelled to do, those things you’re seeing and those places that keep calling to you, well, you should probably ignore them. Ignore them all.” He reached Josh, dropped what was left of his fag and slowly ground it into a puddle. His hard glass-covered eyes flicked back up seriously. “Or you’ll probably end up dead.”

  “You threatening me?” Josh took a step back, feeling a sudden stab of fear, but his snarl remained.

  “No. A threat comes from someone who will hurt you, a warning comes from one who doesn’t want you hurt. Comprend-hi?”

  He paused again, studying Josh with cruel-looking eyes. Again, Josh was feeling exposed and violated. Although it seemed crazy he felt that the creature was inside him, part of him and that made him feel violently ill.

  “So who would hurt me?” The door was only a few metres behind him, but it felt like miles. Slowly he edged towards it.

  “The bad guys! No, don’t ask me any more, just accept that they exist. Now, you’re not involved, you’re not in any danger and none of this even concerns you. It’s just unfortunate that being the way you are...”

  Josh interrupted, knowing exactly what he was going to say and slowly beginning to suspect what had been happening to him over the past month. “That I’m picking up on things?”

  “Yes, and you always did, didn’t you? Probably why you’re such a fucking outcast here.”

  “You don’t know me man!” Josh said angrily.

  “No, I guess not and I guess that’s why I don’t know that you’ve always felt different, separate, why you always felt a certain level of empathy to people, but no real connection. That’s probably why I don’t know you’ve had nightmares for most of your adult life. That really is a little troubled isn’t it, don’t you think?”

  “Shut up!” Josh hissed. ‘I know as much about you as you let me know kid.’ The words echoed inside of him, were never actually physically spoken.

  Carthy shook his head like a disappointed parent. “You don’t mean that much to me,” he told him bluntly. “I didn’t come here just to warn you, and I’m only telling you while I am here. An opportunity arose, that’s all. Just don’t go poking about. In fact, do me a favour and just lock yourself up at home for a couple of weeks. you’re really affecting my methods of work and I know for a fact, they’ve noticed you as well. Make my life easier, I’ll do what I have to do and the sooner that’s done, you’ll be sleeping like a baby again. How’s that sound?”

  “Good.” Josh said almost to himself. Carthy lit another cigarette with a battered Zippo and inhaled deeply. “You missed them?” Josh questioned cautiously, testing his own senses. “Relieved?” Carthy’s voice was level and calm. Answering something which hadn’t been said.

  Josh smiled weakly.

  “And confused and scared?”

  “Listen I don’t know if I can accept this, I mean this is...”

  Carthy cut him short, speaking without opening his mouth. ‘Sorry kid, I don’t really care. I don’t have the time or patience to answer all those questions you keep buzzing ’round your head. How you deal with this is your problem. Still, I will tell you that this is real and this isn’t just the final stage of some kind of psychotic episode. Then again, if it was, I’d probably say that anyway.’

  Josh stepped back, feeling revulsion at how vividly the other had just entered his mind.

  “What are you, Carthy?” His voice was a whisper and the disgust was traceable.

  “I think what you really want to know is what you are. yo
u’re a freak Josh. A fucking freak! Now stay out of my way and go back to your friends. They’re worried!”

  A DANCE BEFORE DYING

  THERE WAS A HUGE BRUISE on Harper’s face and another on his self-respect. His knuckles were white from the pressure and the fingers of his hand were throttling a half-drained pint of lager. The only other reminder of his encounter was a plaster over the slight cut down his cheek.

  The initial relief he’d felt had long died and been replaced with frustration. Harper had been milling it over for some time, cursing Steve for just walking away, pissed at the abuse he’d suffered and that he’d just took it but most of all that he’d now lost out on... on the what? It didn’t have a name and he didn’t even know what the hell he’d even been selling. He called it Blue, obvious really, but whatever it had really been was still a mystery to him.

  It had been a slow burn, but clearly word had spread and suddenly he was getting clients he didn’t even know. People were bringing friends to him. The same faces had been back again and again. New voices were calling on his mobile.

  Now, whether Blue was addictive or not he neither knew nor cared. The only thing he did know was that he’d been able to charge anything from ten to fifteen for one... capsule? Considering the bulk of what he was getting and the pretty small percentage cut his suppliers had been taking, Harper had fast been realising that he was into something good. In truth, the freaks he’d dealt for didn’t seem themselves to realise what they could have got. Maybe they hadn’t worked out the money of this country yet. He’d been taking advantage of something royal either way. There was no doubt he’d stumbled onto some big shit, unfortunately he wasn’t the only one to have realised. His guess was that it had been Sonny but it could just as easily been Gareth Heath. Fuckin’ anybody really...

  He had realised it had been a possibility but what the fuck could he actually do? He’d been kind of torn between excitement that he was possibly onto something that could make him, but had felt an increasing sense of dread that it was possibly getting too big for him to work alone.

  He drained off the last of the anti-freeze and piss in his hand but his grip remained tight around the glass.